Every Drop Counts

[Former Member]

 

The future currency of humankind isn’t going to be cryptocurrency or bullion, its going to be water reserves. Water sources around the world are dwindling and the status of available water in India is especially worrying. Not only are we becoming water deficient, a big factor contributing to our dwindling resources is poor water management. As against 10-20% of water wastage through leaking pipes and tanks in a majority of countries, the distribution related losses of water is pegged as high as 40% in Indian cities. The state in rural India is even worse. Several studies have shown that timely identification of leaks in pipes and upgradation of water distribution systems can bring down the losses significantly.

One of the UN Sustainability Development Goals is to ensure safe water and sanitation for all. Earlier this week, a UN-World bank panel submitted that in the next decade, over 700 million people will be displaced in search of access to water. This alarming state can be managed only if every one of us gets involved in using water judiciously and contribute to preserving and managing our water supply sources.  In fact, the UN-World Bank panel have urged in an open letter “Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you live, we urge you get involved, and contribute to meeting this great challenge: safe water and sanitation for all, and our water resources managed sustainably. Make every drop count. It’s time for action.”



We at SAP are proud to do our bit through helping organisations like Vectus conserve water and manage our water distribution better by arresting leaks and curbing water wastage.



We have also been at the forefront encouraging our employees, as part of SAP One Billion Lives - an employee-sourced, ground up initiative employing the power of SAP technology to deliver sustainable, commercially-viable social impact. In 2017, two of my colleagues Edwin Rajesh Kulandairaj and P. Shyam Sunder realised the potential of how SAP’s technology solutions could improve water management and help water regulatory boards. They devised a digital intervention that determined water outflow, forecasted demand and planned supply through machine learning based supervised regression models. Their venture, AquaSanctum, was built on a vision to sustainably improve lives and address the issue of water scarcity in India. They are presently working on a software plugin that will integrate SAP IS Utilities with SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems that will allow city corporations responsible for water management to access real-time information and use that to improve supply and reduce water wastage.

This #WorldWaterDay, I urge all my colleagues and friends to take a conscious resolve to do your bit to conserve water, for every drop counts.